Toy airplane equipment



July 1, 1947.

5. R. GERBINO ET AL 2,423,380

TOY AIRPLANE EQUIPMENT Filed April 19, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 r 'lI/l/ll INVENTORS ZLpAeu Ew ATTORNEY.

July 1, 1947. s. R. GERBINO ET AL TOY AiRPLANE EQUIPMENT 5 Sheets- Sheet? Filed April 19. 1946 9 ll G W 0 a I WM 0 1 4 o 1 G 1. 6/ 4 3 I v 5 6 2 9w I 7 2 ,2

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We'd- A T TORNEX 1947- s. R. GERBINO ET AL 2,423,380

TOY AIRPLANE EQUIPMENT Filed April 19, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 I! I 48 I; \a 3 12 l I 12 E 4 a emsquw ATTORNEY Patented July 1, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,423,380 TOY AIRPLANE EQUIPMENT Stephen R. Gerbino, E. Whitney,

7 Claims.

This invention contemplates an equipment or apparatus to be adapted for use as a toy or other pleasure purpose and is characterized by some medium, as one simulating an airplane, which when the apparatus is operating is made to soar.

According to our invention in one respect thereof, given a support, there is a rotary train of parts journaled therein and including a driving member and a standard which latter, as per the example herein set forth, reaches upwardly from the support but is in an event upright and is rotative in the support around its own axis and has, remote from the support, an arm projecting laterally and including, remote from said axis, a soaring device, and said train also includes slip-friction rotation-transmitting means interposed between the portions of the train which respectively include said member and the arm. The said slip-friction means is present so that with the driving member of the train subject to quick starting, as by resort to an electric motor, the take-off of the soaring device may be effected at desirably gradually increasing speed.

In another aspect of our invention, what we have referred to as an upright standard having the said arm including a soaring device is specifically constituted as follows: There is an upright staff journaled in the support on an upright axis and journaled in such staff on an axis crossing such upright axis is a carrier; a shaft is journaled in the carrier and projects-laterally from the first-named axis and is rotative around its own axis; and the soaring device takes the form of stiff vane-like element (as an airplane) fast to the shaft remote from the staff. When the structure including these parts is rotated, as by effort applied to the staff, said element rotates around the axis of rotation of the staff. Supplementing the system as thus indicated is means to oscillate the shaft around its own axis and in the carrier. On the whole, therefore, by manipulating said means, and hence changing the angle of said element, the latter in its rotation around the staff may be caused to rise, descend or continue horizontally in flight. The said means is preferably so located as to be hidden so as to impart the illusion that the plane or equivalent is operating voluntarily.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a side elevation of the equipment mounted on a platform or table, shown in section, which may serve as the flying-field;

Figs. 2 and 3 are, respectively, a side elevation and plan of the plane and its supporting arm;

East Paterson, and Daniel Hawthorne, N. J.

Application April 19, 1946, Serial No. 663,342

Fig. 4 shows the lower part of the equipment in side elevation, except for the housing therefor and the platform, which appear in section;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary underneath plan of what is shown in Fig. 4;

a upp r part of said equipment, viewed the same Fig. 6 shows on as in Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a plan view of what is seen in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a sectional view of what is 6 and 7 taken in a It; and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view on line 9-9, Fig. 8. Let .I be a housing, and having brackets 2 ported in an opening of and on a platform or table 3 which may a driving member on the driven shaft of an electric motor 9 havelectric conductor II! provided with any means (not shown) for establishing or interrupting the current. The body of ing the usual which the worm is ing and forms therewith what we term a sup port. Near its upper end the column has, secured thereto by a screw lar, in telescoped another tubular se per end is forked b larger scale a fragment of the seen in Figs.

vertical plane cutting the slot here open at the bottom by which it may be supserve as a flying field.

(here vertical) section or the top wall la of the housa bushing 8. The

herein the form of a worm H the motor in journaled is fixed to the hous- IZ, a collar 13 and on the colrelation to the column, seats ction or column [4 whose upy presence of opposite notches iii-said column also having the upright slot l6 ll is a cylindrical be hereinafter set forth, At carrier having opposite trunnions l8 journaled in the upper end of column M with their common axis horizontal) the upright axis crossing (being here of the two columns.

Penetrating the carrier is a shaft H] which at one side of the carrier has a balance weight 20 and at the other side carries a soaring device 2| here in the form of an airplane.

What we have hereinbefore designated the driving member is the worm H; the standard comprises in this e umn Id and carrier H, which latter shaft 19 aifording the plane 2'! as the unit 4-1, the colsupports the the mentioned arm, with soaring device.

xample the As indicated, when the motor is started, usually suddenly initiating rotation of the driving member, the takeoff of said device is desirably to be effected fat gradually increasing speed. Hence in what we have termed the rotary train,

here including the driving member and standard,

is included a slip-friction rotation-transmitting means, here taking the form of a spiral spring 28 coiled around the axis of the standard and interposed between the telescoped portions of the columns or sections 4 and [4, it having its inner end bent and projecting into a slit 4a of column 4 and its other end in wiping contact with column This spring is preferably coiled in the same direction as that of rotation of column 4, which latter in the present instance is as per the arrow in Fig. 9; thereby the spring obtains an effective but sliding grip on the column [4.

Now, shaft I9 is journaled in the carrier I! so as to rotate around straddling the column shaped crank 22 afiixed extending lengthwise of device, her an airplane,

its own axis therein and 14 it has a generally U- to and lying in a plane th shaft. The soaring is at least for the purpose now to be indicated, fixed to the shaft.

Loosely connected to the crank is a link 23 which,

having been entered to column M via its slot I6, extends downwardly through that portion of the standard which we term cluding the unit 4-1 and end formed with a peripherally grooved Straddling this head and engaged in a staff, to wit, incolumn I 4, the lower below the staff and head 24. its groove of the link reaching is the forked end of a bell-crank lever 25 fulcrumed on a rod 26 supported by the and protruding from and ing.

housing I, connected to the link is a thrust-handle 21 guided by a wall of the housoperation of the apparaand involving the journaling of shaft I 9 in the carrier and the means comprising the link 23, lever 25 and handle 21,

we term the soaring device (which is in this instance to be fast to the shaft, as indicated) a stifi vane-like element,

its wings 21a together forming a stiff vane lying in a plane penetrated by the staff. The staff being rotated and with it the carrier and hence the unit formed by said the

shaft and element, air pressur active on said said element), according to angular position thereof, will determine whether th flight is to be horizontal or at a downward or upward incline, the carrier permitting it and hence canted in either direction. control by the operator, i.

pivoting of the said unit to be This is a matter of e., by movement of handle 2'! inward or outward, the lever displacing the link (free thereof to rotate with the staff and its load) so that it in turn turns said unit around the axis of its shaft.

will be apparent that in so far as presence of the slip-friction rotation-transmission means is concerned it is not material what form the soaring device takes or whether the arm of the standard is susceptible of being canted or rotative around its own axis, and that in sofar as is concerned the controlled rise or descent of the vane-like element during soaring it is not material ting that such slip-friction rotation-transmitmeans be present.

Having thus fully described our invention what we claim is:

1. In combination, a support and a rotary train of parts journaled therein and including a driving member and an upright standard projecting from the support and rotative th'erein around its own axis and having, remote from the sup port, an arm projecting lateral-1y from the standard and including, remote from said axis, a soaring device, said train also including slip-friction rotation-transmitting means interposed between the portions of the train which respectively include said member and the arm.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 characterized by the portion of the standard which includes said arm being rotativ around said axis independently of the remaining portion of the standard and by said means being interposed between such portions.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 characterized by said portions respectively having parts thereof rotative around a common upright axis and in telescoped spaced relation to each other and by said means consisting of a spiral spring interposed in the space between said parts and coiled around the latter axis.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1 characterized by said portions respectively having parts thereof rotative around a common upright axis and in telescoped spaced relation to each other and by said means consisting of a spiral spring interposed in the space between said parts and coiled around the latter axis in the same direction as that of rotation of the train.

5. In combination, a support, a rotary upright staff journaled therein on an upright axis, a carrier journaled in the staff on an axis crossing the first-named axis, a shaft journaled in the carrier and projecting laterally from said first-named axis and rotative around its own axis, a stiff vanelik element fast to the shaft remote from the staff, and upright means, rotative with the staif, for oscillating the shaft around its own axis.

6. The combination set forth in claim 5 characterized by said means extending through the staff.

'7. In combination, a support, a driving member journaled in the support, a rotary upright staff projecting from the support and including a section remote from the support and a section adjacent and journaled in the support and geared with said member, slip-friction means for transmitting rotation from th second-named to the first-named section around the axis of the former, a carrier journaled in the first-named sec tion on an axis crossing the first-named axis, a shaft journaled in the carrier and projecting laterally from said staff and rotative around its own axis, a stiff vane-like element fixed to the shaft remote from the staff, and upright means, rotative with the staff, for oscillating the shaft around its own axis.

STEPHEN R GERBINO. DANIEL E. WHITNEY. 

